Minutes December 2021 | Ravenswood United

Share Your Light

Our world desperately needs our care.

Credit: Geoff Duncan/Lightstock

Published On: November 22, 2021 Dec. 26, 2021

As you know, holidays like Christmas, Boxing Day, and New Year’s can be an incredibly difficult time for those on the margins of society – people without family, friends, or a place to go. The spirit of giving, receiving, and celebration only makes feelings of isolation and loneliness worse. Especially for people without community, those dealing with a health crisis. or those who are not financially stable.

The pandemic has made things even worse. The need to help transform and save lives and provide support to those most vulnerable is critical.

Did you know Boxing Day was originally a day to give rather than receive? Before Boxing Day came to be associated with turkey sandwiches, football, and discounts, it was known as a day to serve people in need. Historically, the church visited those most vulnerable on Boxing Day and gave them money and gifts. The day wasn’t about giving―it was about giving our best.

When you make a gift through Mission & Service, you are aligning yourself with the roots of this day, a day that calls us to compassion.

Our world desperately needs our care. For some, it means everything.

Your support through Mission & Service means that David, who lost his entire family after a series of accidents, can rebuild his life with the help of the Bissell Centre, a Mission & Service partner.

Our partnership with organizations like the Kenya Alliance for Advancement of Children is breaking down barriers and paving the way for eager students to go to school. Your gifts are ending the cycle of stigma and poverty.

Your generosity means that isolated seniors living alone and in poor health not only receive help to access services they need but also know what it means to feel seen and cared for.

Giving is about more than making a gift. It’s about lighting the way for others.

It’s up to each and every one of us to “be the light” in the lives of those who are suffering. Together, we can be the difference our world needs. Thank you for your generosity. God bless you for sharing your light in all the ways that you do.

Community Is Key to Mental Health on Campus

Building communities of belonging

Credit: Mel_88/Pixabay

Published On: November 22, 2021 Dec. 19, 2021

Accumulating debt. Rising tuition. Pressure to succeed academically. Uncertainty about the labour market after graduation. These are just some of the reasons that, in a 2016 survey of post-secondary students in Ontario, 65 percent reported feeling exhausting anxiety and 46 percent reported feeling too depressed to fully function. And that was before COVID-19 forced students into lockdown.

Your generosity through Mission & Service supports students across the country through critical campus ministries, including the Rev. Tim Nethercott’s.

Nethercott is the United Church’s campus minister at Mount Royal University, the University of Calgary, and the Southern Alberta Institute of Technology. “We know that community is essential to mental health. There is a mental health crisis among young adults, partly because they aren’t coming from community. Many are lonely. They don’t realize that you need to find yourself with others, love and be loved in community in order to have mental health. Campus ministry supports mental health by building communities of belonging.”

The model of campus ministry Nethercott leads is unique. With grant support, he has hired and trained a team of six young adults to offer ministry as part of a ministry team. The peer-to-peer model means the ministry is always fresh and relatable. Together, Nethercott and his staff team host events that have drawing power, offer a free meal, and encourage participants to attend sharing circles to help build community, which in turn supports mental health. One of these events has been a wildly successful drumming program. Each year the drumming program was a focus, 2,500 people participated.

“Campus ministry serves the population that is least present in our churches. We don’t see a lot of people in their 20s, but that’s the age when people set the pattern for their adult life. If the church isn’t there saying ‘Consider membership in a spiritual community,’ it might never occur to them,” he says, adding that it doesn’t cost much to have a big impact. “It’s just salaries and food. The buildings, computers, etc. are paid for by the institution and government. It’s not a great expense for a huge public witness of caring. Also, the United Church has a brand that means something in academia. It often opens doors to support students even more.”

Exam pressure means December is a particularly stressful time for students. Let’s hold them and the campus ministers who support them in prayer. Let us pray together:

Compassionate God, grant students energy, wisdom, and clarity of mind as they write their exams. May they know your calm presence during anxious, overwhelming moments. Lead them toward balance and wellness so they can be at their best. Rest your grace upon all campus ministers, too. May they feel the gratitude of the whole of the church so they know their ministry is valued and feel supported in offering it. Energize them as they continue to make a profound difference in the lives they serve. In Christ’s way and name we pray, amen.

Generosity Makes Hearts Sing with Joy

“Music is the language of the spirit.”

Credit: Jennifer Webb from Pixabay

Published On: November 22, 2021 Dec. 12, 2021

“Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly; teach and admonish one another in all wisdom; and with gratitude in your hearts sing psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs to God,” says the book of Colossians 3:16.

From the beginning of time, people have known that nothing stirs the heart and brings people together quite like music. Music has the power to change our world, and when we harness it, we do too.

That’s why Embracing the Spirit grants supported through your Mission & Service gifts and Seeds of Hope grants administered by the United Church Foundation fund music projects that build community and tend to the soul across our United Church.

For example, your generosity makes a joyful noise at Sprucedale United Church in Chatham, Ontario, where an outreach ministry provides free ukulele lessons to adults so they can provide entertainment to local retirement and nursing homes. Thanks to your support, Prairie Points Pastoral Charge in southwestern Alberta received a grant to license songs to create a condensed songbook for use in hospitals and lodges. At Port Nelson United Church in Burlington, Ontario, your gifts helped fund a new handbell choir and in Kamloops United Church, Kamloops, British Columbia, a drop-in pride choir for LGBTQ2S+ community members and allies.

“When harnessed for good, music helps us take important steps to social justice,” says Sarah Charters, Director of Philanthropy and President of the United Church Foundation. “Looking back, music has played a key role in anti-war, civil rights, and women’s movements. How many of us on a personal level have been motivated to make a life change after listening to a song or turn to music to soothe our spirit? Music is the language of the spirit,” she says.

Your generosity means that our United Church can pool resources to make an incredible impact in local communities from coast to coast. An impact none of us could ever make alone. Thank you for fostering spirituality, community, and inspiring social change through music. Your generosity makes hearts sing with joy.

Build Bridges of Peace

“We’re all human. All created by the same divine being.”

Published On: November 22, 2021 Dec. 5, 2021

December is one of the holiest months of the year. Along with Christmas, there’s the Jewish festival of Hanukkah, winter solstice rituals, as well as spiritually significant days for Buddhists, Muslims, and Zoroastrians. That makes this month a good one to remember what unites us.

And it’s important we do. In October, Global Affairs Canada stated that, worldwide, the right to practise, choose, and change one’s religion or belief is increasingly under attack. According to the Pew Research Centre, in 2018 more than a quarter of the world’s countries experienced hostilities caused by religious hatred, mob violence related to religion, terrorism, and harassment of women for violating religious codes.

“I think we have a great lack of understanding of other faith traditions. Lack of understanding breeds contempt and fear. The more we understand and the more we talk, there’s a greater opportunity to break down some of the walls of fear. We can’t do that if we keep talking about us and them,” says John Dowds, City of Edmonton Chaplain in a film called Building Bridges.

The film is produced by the Edmonton Interfaith Centre for Education and Action, a Mission & Service partner. Your gifts through Mission & Service support the centre―the first of its kind in Canada―to hold interfaith celebrations, dialogues, and learning events. You can watch Building Bridges on the centre’s website, and faith communities are encouraged to host a screening. This is one way your Mission & Service gifts not only transform the lives of others but can also change yours for the better, too.

Karen Lumly Kerr from the Society of Edmonton Atheists speaks compellingly about finding common ground in the film: “We all have to learn how to cooperate and figure out how to get along…trying to understand each other a little bit better and finding your common ground. What things do you all believe in? What things do you all find important?”

“Look at my veins, they’re blue,” says Indigenous Elder Fernie Marty, lifting his arm slightly before the camera. “It’s so important to understand our own values and understandings and share them openly and honestly. When we don’t share who we are as individuals, the different cultures, it creates fears…. All of us have blue veins. That tells me we’re all royalty. We’re all equal. None of us is superior to the others. We’re all human. All created by the same divine being,” he says.

Each one of us needs to take a clear and public stand against intolerance and for love. During this month, which is so much about spiritual deepening for so many of us, let us take that stand. Let’s build bridges of peace with all of our neighbours.

Thank you for your generosity through Mission & Service. Your gifts support organizations that remind us there’s more that unites us than divides.